‘Oh, on a secret mission up north,’ Glenys said airily. ‘But where did you spring from, Dotty? I’ve not seen you since last week!’

Dotty tutted as the queue shuffled forward. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know!’ She picked up a tin plate and held it out in the prescribed manner. Behind the counter, the staff were sloshing mashed potato, overcooked cabbage and watery stew on to the outstretched plates, regardless of the fact that a carelessly aimed ladle might deliver half its contents either on to the floor or across someone’s jealously guarded uniform. ‘It’s probably a posting; you know how the brass hats like to disrupt our lives, and you’ve been here for months.’

Glenys extended her own plate, frowning thoughtfully. It was true that the girls were frequently moved around, though this did not often apply to drivers, who might be sent to any part of the country at any time. Sometimes they stayed away for several nights, only returning to Liverpool when they had a load for the docks. But it was possible the powers that be had decided she was too happy with her lot; they might even have thought she knew her trade too well and needed to do something different.

The stew that was presently sloshed on to her plate seemed to contain at least some meat, and her portion had carrot and onion as well as a surfeit of turnip, so she thanked the girl in the big wraparound apron and hair tidy, and followed Jane to one of the square wooden tables against the wall.

Glenys and Jane had joined at the same time and done their basic training together, becoming fast friends in the process. At first the other Ats had made rude remarks about the long and the short of it, because Glenys stood five foot seven in her stockinged feet and Jane barely managed to make five foot, but the ribbing soon stopped when it became clear that neither girl was going to rise to the bait.

They thought themselves very fortunate that they were both posted to the same depot when their basic training had been completed. They had gone straight to Newcastle upon Tyne, and since neither of them had ever been so far north before they enjoyed exploring their new territory, especially when their journeys took them over the border into Scotland and into wild and deserted countryside where they sometimes thought that the very language was foreign. But that had been almost a year ago and now, if Dotty’s guess was right, they might well find themselves posted to different parts of the country; which, Glenys thought, might call for some pretty nifty footwork. She remembered an old sergeant once telling her that if you were prepared to put yourself out you could control the service instead of it controlling you, and indeed, had she not borne his words in mind, she might not have attained the rank of driver quite so quickly.

‘Hey, dreamy, come down to earth and tell me what sort of a day you’ve had,’ Jane said. ‘I heard Dotty say that Sarge had been chasing round looking for the pair of us.’ She put down her knife and fork in order to smite her forehead dramatically. ‘Oh, woe, don’t say it’s a posting.’